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Hearty and authentic Italian
2012-07-27 243 views
For more reviews and photos, please see http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2011/03/lafiandra-trattoria-al-museo.htmlI first knew about Lafiandra Trattoria when they were at Prinsep Street, a tiny place with a homely atmosphere and great hearty unpretentious food. They're now at the Singapore Art Museum, and the restaurant still manages to retain its down-to-earth charm, warm vibe and comforting food while at the classy artsy fartsy posh(er) digs of the old Saint Joseph Institution school buildi
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For more reviews and photos, please see http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2011/03/lafiandra-trattoria-al-museo.html

I first knew about Lafiandra Trattoria when they were at Prinsep Street, a tiny place with a homely atmosphere and great hearty unpretentious food. They're now at the Singapore Art Museum, and the restaurant still manages to retain its down-to-earth charm, warm vibe and comforting food while at the classy artsy fartsy posh(er) digs of the old Saint Joseph Institution school building.

Prices here are very affordable and value-for-money, while the portions are generous. There's never really a crowd so you're (almost) guaranteed a seat without reservations, even on the weekends. We like that it's open till late, so we can hit this place late at night.

We had:

1) Tortelloni Ripieni di Funghi e Formaggio ($22) home-made dumpling filled with mushrooms and cheese in a gorgonzola cheese sauce was very well done. For a rich cream-based pasta, this managed to keep from being cloying

2) Risotto alla Marinara ($22.90), Italian rice with squid, mussels, prawns and clams in a tomato sauce, was awesome. If we had to choose amongst all the dishes (because we loved them all), we'd have to say that this was our favourite. We loved every bit of this fragrant seafood tomato rice dish. The rice was perfectly oozy and al dente, but the ultra fresh seafood was the star. I particularly loved the squid rings, cooked expertly to a soft and tender texture

3) Aglio Olio Spaghetti con Gamberi e Zucchini ($22.90) with prawns and squid tossed with olive oil was light, flavoursome and so yummy in its simplicity
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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Horrible Italian food
2012-01-19 227 views
Owned and operated by Chef Cataldo and his wife Brenda, Lafiandra has been highly recommended as a food centric casual Italian restaurant, which made it the natural choice for our monthly dinner.Sitting pretty on the ground floor of the Singapore Art Museum (the former old SJI), Lafiandra has a very homely feel to it with its earthly shades, huge glass windows and murals painted on pseudo brick walls. High strung Italian music wafts through the air, which does seem a little at odds with the laid
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Owned and operated by Chef Cataldo and his wife Brenda, Lafiandra has been highly recommended as a food centric casual Italian restaurant, which made it the natural choice for our monthly dinner.

Sitting pretty on the ground floor of the Singapore Art Museum (the former old SJI), Lafiandra has a very homely feel to it with its earthly shades, huge glass windows and murals painted on pseudo brick walls. High strung Italian music wafts through the air, which does seem a little at odds with the laid back ambience.

Somehow I've never had a good impression of restaurants that DO NOT serve iced water, especially when even places like Morton's and Iggy's do so. That aside, I had asked for mineral water, but got served the more expensive still water instead. When quizzed, the waiter replied that he had already opened the bottle.

Cheapskate me was expecting complimentary bread as well, but I guess they are adopting the practise of not giving free bread, in line with restaurants in Italy.

Bruschetta - A staple whenever I visit Italian eateries, the humble Bruschetta was reduced to nothing more than a joke at Lafiandra. Size wise, it was tiny and it didn't help that the bread was badly charred in many areas. Probably the only positive note was that it still tasted decent, albeit a bit too crispy from the burnt areas.

Seafood Soup - I was astonished by the amount of seafood that came with this dish. Ingredients wise, this has got to be the most generous I've ever seen. Sadly, thats where the compliments end. The seafood wasn't fresh and that extended to the soup, giving it a raw and pungent taste. I honestly never knew seafood soup could be that bad. I guess I was wrong.

Pizza Diavola, Pizza Con Porcini, Prosciutto Funghi & Pizza Prosciutto Crudo - The pizzas all had one thing in common - pathetic toppings. The crust was fairly thin but didn't quite cut it. Taste wise was decent but that's about it. It got to a point where I actually thought that one of the pizza was from Canadian Pizza.

Ossobuco Alla Milanese - In case you are wondering, no, this is not a tower of mud or something along that line. Its actually the very weird looking ossobuco. The meat was tender but some parts of it seemed a little too fatty and soft, which was plain gross. On a brighter note, the saffron risotto actually had a mild saffron taste, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

Tagliata Di Manzo - I mistakenly thought that this dish was a salad when it got served and it isn't difficult to see why. The thin and miserly slices of ribeye were buried under a mountain of rocket leaves, which would have been acceptable if they had tasted decent. But no, they were terribly bland without even the basic beefy taste. When beef doesn't even taste like beef, then theres a huge problem.

Tiramisu & Panna Cotta - The preceding dishes were so disappointing that I dared not expect anything from the desserts. And rightfully so. The tiramisu had no taste of liquer and instead tasted like soya sauce. Texture wise was still decent though, a little fluffy and smooth. The panna cotta was the icing on the cake for the terrible meal thus far. Its texture tended way towards kueh - sticky and soft and the berry sauce just didn't fit the dessert.

One of the worst Italian dinners I've ever had cost the 8 of us $306, which is way out of this world for the inferior quality of food. I do not see how Lafiandra has made to the list of recommended restaurants and if this dinner is anything to go by, I'm staying very clear of it.
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(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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Trattoria Lafiandra al Museo-Singapore Art Museum
2010-11-16 128 views
This is my first time at Trattoria Lafiandra al Museo. The food is too overprice for the quality and portion of it. Went with 3 other colleagues for lunch and all of us ordered the Seafood Risotto as that was the recommended dish. Ordered calamari for starter and the calamari only arrived together with the Risotto. Isn't it supposed to be starter? The service staff was blur and could not response to most of our queries, the staff needed to check and get back to us most times.Ambience is peaceful
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This is my first time at Trattoria Lafiandra al Museo.

The food is too overprice for the quality and portion of it. Went with 3 other colleagues for lunch and all of us ordered the Seafood Risotto as that was the recommended dish. Ordered calamari for starter and the calamari only arrived together with the Risotto. Isn't it supposed to be starter?

The service staff was blur and could not response to most of our queries, the staff needed to check and get back to us most times.

Ambience is peaceful and quiet as there was not much crowd. Probably because of the small area space of the restaurant, there was a strong stench of cooking oil smell.

Price: around $35 per pax.
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(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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Date of Visit
2010-11-12
Spending Per Head
$35 (Lunch)
Recommended Dishes
  • Seafood Risotto